Kevin's Watch

Right now I am reading THE POWER THAT PRESERVES by -- and I do hope you know the author -- Stephen R Donaldson.

A long time ago, when The Chronicles were new, I devoured them. Upon recently hearing that Thomas Covenant is back, I laid my hands on the first two sets of Chronicles at the local second-hand bookstores to refresh my memory. Ah yes, still awesome after all these years.

I am, however, thinking it's possible that I confused myself in my teenaged years, and read The First Chronicles Book 1, followed by The Second Chronicles Book 2 in a state of confusion, then probably Book 3 of The Second Chronicles. Stuff from Lord Foul's Bane looked familiar, but nothing from The Illearth War or The Power That Preseves does. Meanwhile I do remember events I haven't read about yet.

Alternately, maybe I was just drunk on diamondraught again.

Vraith wrote:

lucimay wrote:for any of you Moorcock readers that are interested in critical and theoretical essay on the subject of epic fantasy (as i am) i'd highly
suggest Wizardry and Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy

the link is a decent review of the the book which has a forward by China Miéville.

Not at all fair, Lucimay, you know how stirred up I get when people say "Critical and theoretical" ....
It does look interesting from the link. [and from his fiction so far, I'm not surprised he'd write something like that].

Holsety wrote:

lucimay wrote:for any of you Moorcock readers that are interested in critical and theoretical essay on the subject of epic fantasy (as i am) i'd highly
suggest Wizardry and Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy

the link is a decent review of the the book which has a forward by China Miéville.

I read one essay where he criticized Tolkien and said Mervyn Peake was a lot better. I'm not a Tolkien hater but the essay was well written and made some good points. Maybe I'll pick up this book sometime Luci, thanks for the recommendation.

heh. well if either of you are interested in this subject here's a couple of other recommendations,

the mothership of fantastic and speculative fiction theory,
Northrup Frye's Anatomy of Criticism
Frye is a seriously dry and academic read but wellllllll worth it if you're into this kind of stuff.

also a must read,
Vladimir Propp's Morphology of the Folktale

both these guys are considered structuralists.

also highly recommend John Cawelti's The Six-Gun Mystique

and Eric Rabkin, a professor at University of Michigan, wrote a book which i couldn't find online to link you to called The Fantastic in Literature. Its a great read. both Cawelti and Rabkin are much more entertaining reads than either Propp or Frye, but equally interesting on
an academic level. i thought some of the links on Rabkin's page looked
interesting so thought i'd at least link you to that.

right then.

[Vraith is oviously having flashbacks to previous dosages of LT&C...not all of them good trips, apparently]

ummm...thanks, Luci.

I actually like reading peeps among/along structuralist lines...I just always think they're wrong.

A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony

The Fortress of the Pearl. More Elric.

--A

hue of bone wrote:A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony

Normally not a huge Anthony fan, but I truly love the "Incarnations of Immortality" series [especially books 1, 6, and 7]...I recommend them.
Wish I had a switch blade scythe.
Finished the Moorcock "Cornellius" v1. Interesting, but dated...probably would have liked them more if I'd read them closer to when the actually were written.
Zelazny's "Millennial Contest" series should arrive today or tomorrow, those are next.

Found books 4 & 5 of the Taltos series that danlo has raved about in the bargain bin at Borders yesterday, so I grabbed it. Might buy the omnibus of the first three, as well. Also picked up the Mad Ship by Robin Hobb, which is #2 in the Liveship Traders trilogy. And then a friend loaned me a book of urban fantasy brain candy. And I'm still working on Atwood's The Year of the Flood. So I'm set for reading material for a couple of weeks, at least.

The Sailor on the Sea of Fate. More Moorcock.

--A

Ive been reading a ton of Robin Hobb books lately...

I finished the Soldier Son trilogy
I read the first two books of Live Ship Traders (waiting on last one to show up in the mail)
I read the first book of the Tawny Man triligy (waiting on the two following books to show up)

Im waiting on the rest of the books I ordered on ebay to show up so I can get back in order. I realized about halfway through 'Fools Errand' that I was reading this set of books and really should have read an earlier set.. so I wont go any further on those until Ive read The Farseer Trilogy (which also Ive ordered and Im waiting on those)

What did you think of the Soldier Son trilogy? I read the Farseer, Liveships and Tawny Man trilogies and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. But I just could not get on with Soldier Son at all. I think I forced my way through all of the first book but it's clearly left no impression on me apart from a vague memory of complete boredom. BTW, it's been a while but I'm pretty sure you should read the Liveships trilogy before the Tawny Man. IIRC, they tie together towards the end of the Tawny Man, so there might be some spoilers for Liveships.

I'm reading House of Chains.

THE ONE TREE. My project to reread the first two trilogies, perhaps 30 years after enjoying them the first time around, continues. I'm just blown away by how excellent they really are. How did I manage to forget?

Oh, and of course I'm putting together a book order (I live in Thailand) which will include the first two books in the new set. C'mon, Stephen, write faster...

Yeah, the first two chrons truly are great. They stand up to all the years since first readings. Amazing stuff.

Rereading Harry Potter. Read Philosopher's Stone yesterday, onto Chamber of Secrets now.

--A

By the time you read this, I'll have probably moved on to WHITE GOLD WIELDER.

The first two entries in The Last Chronicles have not reached Chiang Mai, Thailand, yet, so I ordered those from Better World Books yesterday. Life is good.

Avatar wrote:Rereading Harry Potter. Read Philosopher's Stone yesterday, onto Chamber of Secrets now.

hmm...
For some reason, I'm thinking the copy you have of Philosopher's Stone isn't called that..

Although I admit I can't remember if that's one I sent or one you already had...

CoS is the one Dam-sell helped me track down. Beorn's hard cover was so loved it was missing about 25 pages.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am also reading a little sci-fi number called ENIGMA, but you can't find it because I haven't finished writing it yet. A bit like its prequel, CONUNDRUM, minus the redeeming qualities.

Finished re-reading Blood Meridian. Re-reading Wuthering Heights now. Been ages so it feels very new!

Black Bartlemy's Treasure by Jeffrey Farnol.

(contains the most annoying protagonist I have ever come across)

Early del Rey by none other then the infamous Lester del Rey!

Just finished Stephenson's Quicksilver-ended a bit abruptly for me, but I guess that's the point of the Baroque Cycle in general: to reflect different POVs (ala Leibnitz's philosophy) of 1650-1750 (or so). If I had book 2 at hand, King of the the Vagabonds, I'd be reading it right now, but I can't find it used...oh well. I was very much engaged by Quicksilver and found it very interesting in the Dramatis Personae, at the end, that he lists Rev. Wilkins as a science fiction writer. Maybe that has something to do with his authoring his Cryptonomicon, but I don't understand how that relates to Stephenson's stand alone Cryptonomocon, unless that has to do with Wilkin's prophesies unfolding. *confused*

Anyway, despite what Av says, I'm starting Giaman's Ananazi Boys- so far so good.